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Visiting the Orlando Science Center
The Orlando Science Center was founded in 1955 and is a private science museum, essentially a non-profit organization. Its purpose is to provide experience-based opportunities for learning about science and technology and to promote public understanding of science. They strive to be the spark that ignites innovation. Location/Parking The Orlando Science Center is located near the Winter Park area. Its surrounded by a park area, Loch Haven Park, the Orlando Repertory Theatre, a community church, the Orlando Museum of Art, and the Orlando Fire Museum. There’s much to do in this area as well as a variety of restaurants nearby. When driving to the OSC, there are various signs that tell you where the building is located and where parking is available. There is a parking garage located across from the science center. Parking costs $5 or free if you’re an OSC member. Bike racks are located on the ground level of the garage. Alternatives for transportation include the Lynx bus service is available near the building or the SunRail train reaches the Florida Hospital Health Village which is a short walk away from the science center. If you come from the parking garage, level 2 of the garage is where the main entrance for the science center is located. A walkway connects the parking garage to the entrance. Pricing/Membership The Orlando Science Center is open Monday – Sunday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., its closed on Wednesdays but are open the first Wednesday of each month. This is for parents who want to bring their child but don’t want to be surround by crowds of children who are there for school trips. The OSC is open on most major holidays except for Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Day. The prices range depending on the age of each guest. An adult ticket costs $20.95, youth ages 3-11 cost $14.95, Seniors (55+) costs $18.95, students who bring an ID will cost $18.95, and children ages 2 & under are free. The OSC offers different general admission programs, the Science for All program is offered to those who have an Access Florida EBT card. If you bring this EBT card and a valid form of photo ID, admission will cost $3 per person and allows you to bring up to 6 individuals. The science center tries to be as inclusive as possible and believe in giving opportunities to learn accessible to everyone. The science center also offers a membership program. There’s different membership to choose from with different pricing. The annual membership benefits includes access to the exhibits, unlimited shows to the CineDome and Digital Adventure Theater, discounts to different program, free parking, discounts to shops and restaurants and a year subscription to their magazine. The college membership is $65 and benefits one college student. The individual membership costs $125 and includes benefits for one adult. The couple membership is $145 and benefits two members. The family membership costs $165 and benefits two adults and any children under 18. Finally, the grandparent family membership includes two adults and any grandchildren under 18 for $165. Additional add-ons costs $25 each and $50 to add a nanny into the membership. First Floor The OSC is slightly shaped like a circle and there four floors in total. The each floor has an elevator for those who can't access all levels by using the stairs. The first floor has the cafeteria area where they have a Subway restaurant and plenty of chairs and tables. You are allowed to bring your own food as well. The center of the first floor is the NatureWorks exhibit. Here the offer a look at ecosystems, specifically ones in the Central Florida area. Animals include various reptiles and insects exhibits representing the ecosystems like coral reefs and mangrove swamps. The science center also offers multiple live encounter shows. Next to the NatureWorks exhibit is the Dr. Phillips CineDome. The CineDome is a theater with a giant screen measuring 8,000 square feet and consists of 300 seating. The screen projects films through a fisheye lens, allowing the whole audience to view it beyond their peripheral vision. The theater shows films hourly and offer three different types of film, Amazon Adventure, Oceans: Our Blue Planet, and Dream Big. Lastly, the first floor also holds birthday rooms where parents can rent out party rooms for their child and offer different packages. Second Floor The second floor consists of KidsTown, the Kinetic Zone and the Traveling Exhibit. The second floor has a small coffee shop that sells pastries, snacks, and beverages for more variety than just subway. KidsTown is an early childhood exhibit hall designed for ages 7 and under. It allows kids to invent, create, build, and test with various tools. KidsTown offers the Orange Grove, an interactive factory and farmer's market where children can learn how oranges travel from trees to the consumer's table. Next to Orange Grove is the Issacs Family Climb Time, a play area thats filled with ropes, spaces, and slides. Past the Climb Time is the Drip Drop Splash area, a water table that allows kids to play with currents and create damns and have an early understanding of water flow. In the same room as the water table is Harriet's KidsTown Theater. Its a space that offers a variety of costumes and props to allow children to act and use their imagination. The last exhibit in KidsTown is the Explore It area. This area exhibits wind pips that eject colorful scarves, floating balls, and a projected kaleidoscope. Across from KidsTown is the Kinetic Zone. This exhibit offers interactive hands on activities that focuses on the fundamentals of forces, like electricity, gravity, and Newton's Laws. Some of the most popular exhibits include the Coaster Challenge, which allows you to create your own roller coaster engineering. They also provide a Balance Challenge which tests your creations's balance on an 18-foot zip line. Other experiences include pulley systems to lift yourself from the ground, launch air rockets and virtual reality flight and driving simulators. Each area has different work stations designed to offer some sort of challenge involving a different type of force. This exhibit is aimed for children ages eight and up. The second floor of the OSC also offers smaller theater than that of the CineDome. The Digital Adventure Theater offers full length films in 3D. During special events, they may play popular movies like older versions of the Star Wars series. Majority of their films however are educational. The three current films that they screen daily are Earth-flight 3D, a film that shows flight across the world on the wings of birds as they film the movie using aerial techniques to follow them. Plant Power 3D talks about the history of electricity and famous scientists who impacted the world with innovative electric technology, and the how the current world depends on electricity. Lastly, Antartica 3D takes you to the see the wildlife found in Antartica and raises awareness about the changing climate due to global warming. The last exhibit to see on the second floor of the OSC are the traveling exhibits. Every few months, the Orlando Science Center will include new exhibits that are on display for a limited time. These exhibits have a different theme every time. Their latest traveling exhibits are Zoo In You and Human Plus. Zoo In You shows the trillions of microbes inside the human body and offers experiences like DNA patterns and building your own viruses. Human Plus explores tools that extend the abilities of the human body and shows the latest technologies like neuro-prosthetic limbs, wheel chairs, vision enhancements and more. Third Floor The third level of the Orlando Science Center has The Hive and the Fusion: A Steam Gallery exhibit, and the Founders room. The Founder’s room is a meeting space that’s available to businesses who wish to reserve it. The room can hold about 104 guests. The Hive: A Makerspace is a working space for making and exploring. The Hive offers tools and materials along with mentors to help bring your creative ideas to life. They offer guided activities or allow you to create a design completely on your own. This exhibit is meant for ages 8 and up but children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. The current Hive activities are Circuit Blocks & Finger Knitting, which is from September 1-16 and Weaving & Hydraulics from September 17-30. The Hive offers activities with 3D printing on Thursdays at 3:30 pm and Saturday & Sunday 11:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The exhibit provides stories relating to a theme, the month of September is wild weather month and offer story telling for younger children Saturdays and Sundays. The Hive is the newest activity center as it opened in August of 2018. The Fusion: A Steam Gallery is an art gallery that’s fused with STEM (Since, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.) and art together to create new perspectives. The Steam Gallery creates new exhibits with featured artists local to the Orlando area. Their latest featured exhibit will last until October 23. The artist is Thomas “Thor” Thorspecken. He was a former Disney Feature Animation Artist and now works as an illustrator and journalist. He created a piece in 2009 called, Analog Artist Digital World. Every day for a year he created a sketch documenting art and culture in the Orlando area. His display in the gallery shows 30 of Thor’s paintings of happenings at the Orlando Science Center. A meaningful permanent installation in the STEM gallery is the Facets of Love. This installation was created as a tribute to the Pulse victims and survivors. It consists of kaleidoscope stained glass made out of colorful paper pieces. The other part of the installation can be found in the walkway entrance of the Orlando Science Center. Small crystal hearts from every color of the rainbow hang above the walkway. Fourth Floor The final floor consists of Our Planet, Dino Digs, and the SunTrust Terrace. Our Planet is an interactive exhibit that shows you the four spheres of Earth. The exhibits explains the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere and the connection in all four. The exhibit explain the different weather patterns we experience. Some of the interactive exhibits include, reporting on weather conditions on a Severe Weather Center Set, a view on current weather conditions around the globe through a spherical projection system, constructing paper gliders and launching them through different aerial maneuvers, and a chance to experiences how strong a Category 1 hurricane’s winds are through a simulation. Their latest addition to the Our Planet exhibit is the Flight Lab. The Flight Lab allows you to virtually become a pilot using the Oculus Rift head mount. Here you learned how to fly, navigate, and communicate with a partner to successfully fly a plane. This exhibit offers a lot of hands-on projects and is recommended for ages 8 and up. Next to Our Planet is the Dino Digs exhibit. This exhibit showcases dinosaurs in both land and aquatic settings. The exhibit offers a paleontological excavation site that’s for children, a giant pit with “fossils” and dinosaur eggs can be uncovered. There’s displays all around the exhibit of real fossils of various reptiles and explain the similarities and differences between reptiles and dinosaurs. Lifesize displays of fossilized dinosaurs are also displayed in the exhibit and offer background information on the extinct animal. Lastly, the Orlando Science Center has a rooftop terrace. The SunTrust Terrace is a 6,300 square-foot rooftop and is the largest in Orlando. The terrace has a view of all of downtown Orlando and lit fairly well at night because of the amount of market lights displayed all over. The terrace is meant as a rental space for special events like corporate events, family get-togethers, holiday parties and even weddings. OSC even offers to set up the events in the exhibit halls found on the fourth floor like in Dino Digs so that guests can view the replicas during your special event. Special Events/Programs 'Science Night Live ' The Orlando Science Center has special monthly events for both the public and educational programs for grades K-8. Science Night Live occurs once a month and is a 21+ only event. The event does serve alcohol and other refreshments. Admission costs $15.95 or free if you’re a member. It’s a chance for adults to attend the science center and learn about science that’s geared to interest adults. All four floors are available to experience the exhibits. Each Science Night Live offers a guest speaker to speak about a topic relating to science. Along with the guest speaker, Science Night Live offer specials games on stage like trivia, and Microbe Mania. It's an opportunity to remind the community that the science center isn't just for kids and adults can learn new things about science as well. 'Science of Wine ' Science of Wine occurs every April and is a wine tasting event with more than 150 different wines. They provide wine and food from different regions of the world and locally from Central Florida. Along with the wine tasting, the science center provides vocal groups, painting seminars, and cooking demos. Its an alternative to Epcot's food and wine festival, although its not as extravagant as Disney, it's relatively cheaper and an opportunity to be a part of the local community. 'Preschool Program ' The Science Center offers a variety of education programs for children of different ages. All education programs focus on STEM practices, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The preschool program focuses on early childhood domains like literacy, language, social and emotional development, cognitive development, and motor skills. The staff who work in the program meet the Florida Department of Education requirements and are first aid/CPR infant, child, and adult certified. They also have experience working with children ages 0-8 years old. Tuition prices for the school year can vary between how many days a week the child will attend the program and if the parent is an OSC member. Prices can range from $115-$205 weekly. 'Little Explorers ' Little explores is another STEM related education program aimed for children 18 – 36 months. It is 60-minute workshops that are hands on through song and movement. This a program where both the guardian and the child can bond over the engagement together. The workshop fees are $22 for members and $28 for non-members and are every Monday and Tuesday. Topics include story times, learning about animals, flight, human body, kitchen chemistry, the seasons and “cool science.” 'Pint Size Science ' This education program is designed for ages 3-5 years old and is a drop off program, meaning the adult isn't part of the learning experience and allows children the engage and learn with each other. The program lasts 3 hours and they also offer a range of STEM topics that are hands-on and science infused play. Pint Size Science occurs twice a month and costs $45 for members and $55 for non-members. The topics run similarly to the Little Explorer’s program. 'K-8 Homeschool Program ' The first Monday of every month from September through May, The Science Center holds a STEM program for homeschool children to provide them with an opportunity to experience hands-on workshops that they wouldn’t have access to at home. The STEM Learning includes Discovery Labs, educational films and a chance to explore the various exhibit halls. The program offers students a chance to engage in topics with peers and learn at their pace. The classes are separated into three different classes, grades 1-2, 3-5, and 6-8. Topics include challenges, engineering, robotics, and physics.